30 ANIMALS OP NORTH AMERICA. 



on the number of small quadrupeds which are congregated 

 together more thickly than usual, to feed on the mast. In 

 the Hudson Bay territory a line of traps will be set for it 

 called a " a sable line," sometimes sixty or seventy miles in 

 length, at the rate of from six to ten a mile, visited by the 

 trappers perhaps once in a fortnight. These traps are very 

 simple, being generally made of long chips cut from the 

 nearest tree, which driven into the ground form three sides 

 of a square about six inches across ; the bait is then placed 

 on a stick laid crossways between the main* support and prop 

 of a heavy log or rough board, which falls the moment the 

 bait is touched, crushing all under it ; the top is then covered 

 with some boughs of spruce or hemlock thrown lightly over 

 it, and left to do its silent work. Fishers and wolverines 

 will follow one of these sable-lines, breaking into the traps 

 from behind, and destroy the bait as well as the captive if 

 any is there. The American sable has been often confounded 

 with, but is quite distinct from the pine marten of Europe. 



The SMALL WEASEL (Mustela Pusilla) is supposed by 

 some to be, and on the authority of Bonaparte is, the ermine 

 in its summer coat, but this is very doubtful. It is very 

 voracious and very tenacious of life. It is common about old 

 walls, farm buildings, thickets near lonely houses, &c. It 

 must not be confounded with the 



ERMINE (Putorius JSrminea). This weasel is very destruc- 

 tive to poultry, but its injuries are perhaps counterbalanced by 

 the numbers of mice and rats it destroys in barns, stacks, and 

 about the farm buildings. It is very active, nocturnal in its 

 habits, and frequents wood-piles ; in its white winter coat, 

 with tail tipped with black, it is sometimes called the 

 Catamingo, or White Weasel. 



The last of the Weasel family we shall describe is the 

 MINK (Putorius Visori). Its name is corrupted from the 

 word Mcenk, given by the early Swedish settlers in the 

 United States. It is well known, and is met with in all parts 



